


The Reason Why I Didn't Tell You

by bordering_on_hostility



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: F/F, Minor Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-21
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-05-22 10:39:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6076167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bordering_on_hostility/pseuds/bordering_on_hostility
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>tumblr prompt: the scene where shaw finds out root was deafened and her reaction. Does Root tell her (privately or at the same time as the others)? Does Shaw guess? I want to see Shaw’s worry, anger, and level of caring/comforting. I want to see Root’s worry about Shaw’s reaction (particularly to finding out Control was the one who deafened her) and her appreciation</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Reason Why I Didn't Tell You

_“What’s going on, Root?”_

The guy got to her before she could reach the door. He grabbed her by the collar and used her momentum to send her flying toward the glass coffee table in the middle of the room. The noise was deafening as she landed heavily on it, shattering its surface, shards of glass cutting her indistinctly. 

_“Root!? Talk to me!”_

It sucked the air out of her lungs and she barely had the time to recover from the impact, rolling on her side, before he was on top of her, brandishing a letter opener. 

“That’s what happens“ he straddled her and pinned her right arm on the ground while she frantically searched her left pocket with her free hand ”when you stick your nose in where it doesn’t belong”

_“I’ll be there in 15 seconds, hold on”_

He smiled wickedly and raised his arm, ready to stab her. She took advantage of that bonus time to extract her taser from her jacket and hit him right in the chest. He screamed loud and fell on his side convulsing, the letter opener falling out of his hand to the carpet with a dull thud

Root exhaled deeply, closing her eyes. She took long, deep breaths, trying to calm herself down and ignore the slightly upsetting buzzing in her ears. The Machine resumed her chattering through her implant and she quickly tuned Her out, not in the mood to listen to how good the chances were that cuts from glass slivers wouldn’t cause infection. When the guy started to move less incoherently, she tazed him again for good measure

“Root! Are you okay?” 

This time John’s voice didn’t come through her cochlear implant and she opened her eyes again to see him enter the room with his gun raised and trained on the perp. 

“Never been better” she lifted herself up and quietly groaned as she started feeling the various shards of glass lodged in her body, the adrenaline already wearing off

“NYPD’s gonna be here any moment now” John warned pulling out a pair of handcuffs

“Don’t worry” by the time John had secured the perp, she was already out the door “Wouldn’t ruin your party for the world”

-

Once back to the subway station, Root was relieved to find the place empty. Taking a cab home and a painkiller had seemed a reasonable course of action at the time but now that she had nausea and her head was pounding mercilessly, she regretted not having taken the physical pain. Tiredness was creeping into her since she had just dealt with her ninth number of the week. Now she only craved some rack time.

Bear came to greet her, happily wagging his tail. Root barely cracked a smile at him as she entered the subway car, so he quickly disappeared, probably resuming his pursue of the legendary rat that had been haunting them for days. She was grateful for that. Dogs could be so much smarter than humans sometimes. Plus, they never held a grudge. 

She sighed tiredly as she reached into the locker for their spare first aid kit. It proved to be more difficult than expected since she had just one functioning hand and someone had had the brilliant idea to stuff the cabinet with all sorts of weapons. Holding them back with her right elbow and lifting a grenade with her teeth, she was able to pull out the kit with her good hand.

“Rough number?”

Root was startled as Shaw appeared on her right without warning and almost let the grenade drop

“I’ll take that” Shaw took the weapon out of her mouth. Root swallowed hard, straightening up to regain her composure “Someone’s jumpy”

“I’m not jumpy” Root retorted harsher than she intended “Since when do you come in through the back of the car?” she shut the locker before turning away from Shaw to head toward the desk on the far end of the wagon

“Since Bear recruited me for the rat hunt in the tunnels” Shaw didn’t bother reopening the locker and left the grenade on the table in front of it “How did the jerk manage to throw you into a window?”

“Didn’t hear him coming” Root spoke sotto voce as she sat at the desk, opening the first aid kit in front of her “and it was a coffee table”

“A-ha.“ Shaw got closer and quickly took over the cleaning wounds process ”Fucking rich people and their fancy houses” she disinfected her own hands, poured some antiseptic on a sterile gauze and wielded a pair of tweezers “Hold still”

Shaw stood beside her, cautiously placed Root’s right arm on the desk and started extracting the shards of glass from her hand with neat and precise moves. Root stopped hissing at the third fragment and made herself breath in deeply to forget how it stung, occasionally taking swigs of the cheap bourbon Shaw had got her before getting down to work. Mostly she watched Shaw operate intently. Her strong hands, the way her tendons stood out as she moved, those dark eyes, so intense and focused

“I’m gonna kill John” Shaw whispered as she tilted her head, narrowing her eyes “and we need to get a fucking decent lamp, these neon lights suck”

“Copy that, doc” Root raised an eyebrow, grinning from ear to ear. Her attempt to look suggestive failed miserably though as she stressed her face muscles, a soft moan escaping her lips before she could repress it

Shaw glared at her, then put the tweezers back on the desk “Ok, let’s take a look at this first” she took Root’s chin between thumb and index to make her head turn and moved locks of hair so she could inspect her right ear. Root complied in silence, stunned by Shaw’s gentle touch

“You got some fragments here too” Shaw took the tweezers again “Keep your hair up”

Root moved locks of hair out of the way, uncovering her neck, and Shaw quickly resumed her work. Root clenched her jaw to make sure to stay as still as possible. Yet, having someone tinkering around her ear turned out to be unnerving and she stiffened inadvertently

“I think we’re done” Shaw let the last shard of glass fall into the tray with the others and laid the tweezers aside “It’s weird, the implant looks fine” 

“It is fine” Root blurted out, anything but casual. She straightened up as if she was getting ready to get up and leave, but Shaw took her chin and made her tilt her head again, locking her in place

“Yeah” Shaw mumbled absentmindedly. Root could almost feel her attentive gaze on the side of her skull “Did the number use a stun grenade?”

“No, doc” Root hinted a smile and rolled her eyes. Still, her answer lacked of conviction “But this is cute”

“You said you didn’t hear him coming” Shaw insisted, not taking the bait “you didn’t hear me coming either and I just rubbed my fingers close to your ear, you didn’t react” 

Root squirmed on the chair, increasingly uncomfortable 

“You might be experiencing a sudden hearing loss, probably due to an inner ear concussion” Shaw concluded, leaning closer to better inspect Root’s ear “it’s usually temporary but…”

“It’s not” Root turned her head to escape Shaw’s grip

Shaw frowned and straightened up as Root got up from the chair. Root exhaled deeply before turning around to face her. She was going to fold her arms but settled for hugging her elbow with her left hand instead

”It’s not temporary” Root repeated loudly, finally meeting Shaw’s eyes “I’m deaf in my right ear”

Shaw clenched her jaw tightly and furrowed her brows. Root watched as she averted her gaze and pressed her lips together, slowly nodding “Is that how you got the scar?”

Root closed her eyes for a split second and chuckled softly “Let’s just say it wasn’t fun” 

Then Root tilted her head as she often did when the Machine started talking to her all of a sudden. She promptly moved toward the computer on the desk while Shaw watched her apparently motionless. The computer screen lit up as Root restarted it, the fingers of her left hand flying over the keyboard as quick as possible while her injured hand was left hanging awkwardly

“Root” Shaw made a pause and folded her arms tightly across her chest. Root kept working on the computer, following the Machine’s instructions, but could still see Shaw out of the corner of her eye. She almost felt the body heat Shaw started radiating as she repeatedly shifted her weight from one foot to the other “Who did this to you?”

The clicking of computer keys stopped for a second as Root looked up, then resumed tentatively “A miscommunication” she glanced quickly at Shaw, who lifted her head, loudly breathing in through the nose. Root felt the need to elaborate 

“The sake of the mission at the time made it essential that I had an emergency surgery” Root talked slowly, trying to pick her words carefully “A stapedectomy” putting it like that made it sound like it had happened to someone else, which made it easier for Root to tell ”it damaged the inner ear, messed with the auditory nerve fibers…”

Shaw shook her head “But the implant…”

“The Machine transmits all the relevant sounds I can’t hear” Root cut her off, resuming her one hand typing ”She even works like a common cochlear implant on occasions”

Shaw raised her eyebrow “On occasions?” 

“It depends” Root took her time to answer, struggling to meet the demands of the Machine, ignore her fatigue and deal with Shaw all at once “if She has eyes or ears, She can amplify, reconstruct the noises or convert them into more understandable sounds” she inserted the flash drive she’d retrieved in the number’s apartment in the computer USB port “Beside, she often talks all the time, about much more relevant matters” 

Shaw stiffened visibly, squeezing her own bicep with her left hand “Stop telling me how relevant the Machine is”

It made Root’s blood run cold. The hint of agony in Shaw’s assertive voice made it impossible for Root to focus and she suddenly felt intoxicated by the very air she was breathing. The screen of the computer in front of her told her the data transfer had been completed. She barely acknowledged the information

“So” Shaw nodded to herself repeatedly ”You didn’t go through auditory rehabilitation” 

Root puffed and chuckled all at once then bit her lip “I had to try and stop Samaritan from going online” she started gesturing as she lifted herself up ”the matter was time-sensitive, my options were limited, and when I failed“ she turned to face Shaw, but never met her eyes ”I had to do what was in my power to contain the enormous damage done, so no, I didn’t exactly have time for therapy”

“Root” 

Root felt her chest tighten. When she finally looked at Shaw, she was hit by Shaw’s state. The tiny woman was unnaturally still, barely containing her anger as she tightly hugged herself, and she had squeezed her arm so much that her knuckles had turned white. When Shaw looked up to meet her eyes, her heart missed a beat

”the Machine asked you to do it, didn’t she?” 

“N-No!” Root stuttered, her eyes went wide “Absolutely not, She would never…”

“Then who did it?” 

A loud screech penetrated her ear and Root automatically reached for her implant. Shaw too grimaced in pain 

_“I’m sorry for the interference” _the noise stopped and Harold’s voice spread through the comms _“Miss Groves, Miss Shaw”_ __

Root and Shaw exchanged a look heavy with tension

_”I had to recalibrate all the frequencies of our communication canal, I’m afraid there may have been a leak”_

Root averted her eyes to retrieve the flash drive from the USB port. Shaw literally growled.

_“Miss Groves, I will most certainly need your assistance, John and I will be at the subway in fifteen minutes”_ someone started an engine in the background _“I hope this is a good time to request your cooperation”_

“Sure, Harry” Root turned to the computer, typing furiously with the only good hand she had as multiple windows popped up on the screen “Whatever you need”

Shaw started pacing, hands behind her back. Root snuck a look at her more than once but mostly pretended to focus on the task at hand. At some point Shaw approached the locker and started stuffing a duffle bag with an obscene amount of weapons. 

“This should do it” Root mumbled, rebooting the system. She frowned when Shaw dropped her bag right outside the wagon, close to Bear’s bed

“Harold’s gonna need the hard drive” Root muttered to herself, making a move for the door

Shaw turned and put her hand on the jamb of the subway door, blocking her path “Your hand first"

Root froze, then cracked a smile that didn’t reach her eyes “Sameen…”

Shaw slammed the palm of her hand against the subway door and Root winced “I’m not letting you…” 

Shaw stopped and raised her hands defensively

“That wound needs to be bandaged or else it’s gonna cause infection” Shaw looked at her dead in the eye, her voice dropping low “sit down before I make you”

Root searched her eyes for what seemed an eternity. She just saw two dark huge abysses. Jaw squared, an impenetrable look on her face, Shaw looked like she was ready to mangle somebody. Still, Root didn’t feel threatened. If anything, she felt protected, guarded.

“Alright then” Root pursued her lips, fighting back a tired smile. She backed off and purposefully sat at the desk, making the swivel chair turn to face Shaw “Let’s finish before dad gets here, though, shall we?”

Shaw glared at her, then moved closer to retrieve some sterilized bandages from the first aid kit. She dressed every deep cut with dedication, placing rolled-up gauze between Root’s fingers to keep them from touching. Soon Root couldn’t help but smiling more openly and when Shaw gently took her wrist to star bandaging her hand, she lightly shook her head

“Don’t get me wrong, Sameen, this is really nice but…” Root hesitated and her smile got strained ”you’re kinda freakin’ me out”

Bear barked in the distance and Shaw smiled in a way Root couldn’t quite decipher. She held the bandage as Shaw stretched to pick a pair of scissors and adhesive tape from the kit. Noises of footsteps echoed in the subway and Bear stopped barking to rush toward the entrance

“It’s a torturing technique I thought no one used anymore” Shaw muttered to herself, refusing to look at her ”She almost killed you, Root”

Root stiffened and her face blanched “Shaw, I told you, She has nothing to do with…”

“I’m not talking about the Machine” Shaw added patiently, leaning over. The noise of footsteps got louder with every passing second while Shaw carefully applied a strip of adhesive tape to secure the bandage ”I could have killed her on so many occasions” then she threw the tape away, missing the desk. it bounced off and fell on the floor ”yet you always insisted that we work together”

“Shaw” Root swallowed hard feeling her throat dry up. It was all the validation Shaw needed and when she turned away from her, Root failed to stall her “Wait, Sameen”

“Miss Shaw, oh thank Goodness”

Shaw slipped out as Harold entered the subway car “Miss Groves” he was limping frantically, his laptop under his arm “The malfunction compromised our secure communications system…”

Root jumped out of her chair a second too late. Harold abruptly looked up and tripped over his own feet, bumping into her. “Oh dear"

Root caught him before he could fall face first on the desk “Sorry, Harold” she made sure Harold had regained his balance while he looked at her, utterly stunned “This will have to wait”

Root sprinted out the wagon to find John standing there

“Where did she go?” she checked the subway exit but there was no Shaw in sight. The duffle bag Shaw had prepared was gone too.

“The tunnels” he croaked sadly as Root frantically turned around. Harold popped out of the subway car, looking at her in shock while Root ran toward the tracks, leaning out from the platform. The dark and the silence stared back at her

“John” Root called out, inspecting the tracks unsuccessfully “I think we might have a problem”

**Author's Note:**

> special thanks to @fightponey who proofread this, her supervision is invaluable to me.


End file.
